Huronia Chapter - What is collaborative research? Working together to investigate Huron Wendat ceramic traditions

Speaker: Dr. Alicia Hawkins

Topic:  What is collaborative research? Working together to investigate Huron Wendat ceramic traditions

At 7pm on Wednesday, June 12th in the Thompson Room of the North Simcoe Recreation Centre, Midland, ON

Open to public - No admission

Huron-Wendat oral traditions clearly indicate a long-standing relationship between the Huron-Wendat people and places in eastern Canada. However, archaeologists have focussed on the Huron-Wendat presence in Ontario. While there are many basic similarities in material culture, subsistence and settlement across the lower Great Lakes and St. Lawrence valley, archaeologists have focussed on a few differences in material culture to define different "archaeological cultures."

Our research project takes a different approach to investigation of the Huron-Wendat past. We examine ceramic artifacts from the perspective of "communities of practice," or groups of people who share knowledge and learning. Using a series of high-tech but minimally destructive or non destructive techniques, we consider the sources of clays, the recipes for making a workable clay body and the gestures used to produce pottery across a large swath of Ontario and Quebec before European contact.

This project was conceived of by the Huron Wendat nation, and developed as a partnership between members of the Nation and archaeological researchers.

Co authored by - Alicia Hawkins, Louis Lesage, Amy St. John, Greg Braun, Joe Petrus